Welcome to Ships Nostalgia, the world's greatest online community for people worldwide with an interest in ships and shipping. Whether you are crew, ex-crew, ship enthusiasts or cruisers, this is the forum for you. And what's more, it's completely FREE.

During my time with Blue Funnel 1960's Trincomalee was one of the places I most enjoyed visiting. It did not seem as though you were on a commercial ship at all. It was a naval base as well and I recall the assault ships Albion, Bulwark and other units being there, Elephant festivals, trips up country
The tamil tigers and tsunamis have not been a great help.
Maybe it will come again.
Anyone been there recently.

During my time with Blue Funnel 1960's Trincomalee was one of the places I most enjoyed visiting. It did not seem as though you were on a commercial ship at all. It was a naval base as well and I recall the assault ships Albion, Bulwark and other units being there, Elephant festivals, trips up country
The tamil tigers and tsunamis have not been a great help.
Maybe it will come again.
Anyone been there recently.

Best regards
jimmys

Jimmy
Was there several years ago, my first visit back since the early 60's. My brother and his wife were living in Sri Lanka at the time so I took the opportunity to revisit some old haunts. Due to the war it was not easy to visit Trinco but we hired a local driver and car and spent a few days there. We had to stop for innumerable army check points getting there but did not encounter any problems. We stayed at the luxurious Beach Hotel at Nilaveli and we were the only guests. Trinco does not appear to have changed very much from what I remember but tourism is suffering. Could not visit China Bay as it was off limits due to the Navy base. When we were there the Tamils sent a suicide boat in causing some loss of life. A shame that such a beautiful island can be wracked by civil war. The locals are sick of it and worry about the future, especially for their sons ( army service etc ) Now that you have jogged my memory I will post a couple of photos taken at China Bay when I was there with Bank Line.
Regards
Brian.M

I was in Trincomalee in about 1969 to load Tea (Bibby Line) and the place was practically deserted... British operations had pulled out and what the couldn`t take with them they had sunk... even the floating dock and also had pulled up all of the mooring buoys. Apparently the Indian government had taken over everything including major private equipment owned by Wlmpy and others and didn`t pay for it... probably didn`t want the same thing to happen again... not sure how much of that is true but Trincomalee Harbour
was a mess. Someone must have been angry! Snowy

During a payoff with Texaco I stayed at the Galle Face Hotel, that was early 1970's. It was a fantastic place full of old world standards. This was supposed to be one of the worlds best hotels at the time. It is still around.

Jimmys ;
In July of 1968 I was tranfered from the Brocklebank MV Mahsud which was in Colombo to join the MV Mahseer which was In Trincomalee and bring her back to Colombo ( her previous port) for repairs . Originally only our Chief Engineer was sent up ( Jake Donnely who you may have know as he was with The Salvage Assosiation I believe in Glasgow after he left Brocks ) but on arrival he found most of the Engieering crew out of commission and asked for me to join . ( The details of the trip are covered in other threads of mine and I wont bother repeating at the risk of being a bore .)

The interesting thing was the trip by taxi from Colombo to Trinco which set out early morning and arrived early evening just in time to sail .

I was enthrawled with the scenery all the way with the "Tanks " for irrigation and the Elephants and the " hustle bustle of life "along the road .
I saw more of Ceylon that day than all the other times ashore over the years .
Unfortunatly I did not have a camera and all that is left is the memory ; one I shall not forget .
Regards Derek